Savoring the Seasons: Growing food...together

This past week I’ve enjoyed salads made with spinach Sue Bridge grew in her greenhouse at Wildside Gardens in Conway. I volunteer weekly at Wildside, and love working alongside Sue, in the greenhouse or forest garden or among her perennial vegetable plantings. We have great chats about wide-ranging subjects and chuckle at the antics of her BIG Maine Coon cats, Moxie and Beau. My yard is too shady for growing much food, and, I’d rather work in gardens with friends than on my own. Sue shares food she grows at Wildside with me ... spinach, rosemary, ginger, Gilfeather turnip, butternut squash, raspberries, rice, ground cherries, and more. Knowing Sue and helping grow that food enhances the flavor of every bite of Wildside I eat.

Greenfield Community Farm is a great resource for growing food in community. At Rowe Conference Center’s upcoming workshop you can join others to learn how to design a vegetable garden. Pat Leuchtman shares gardening wisdom in her “Between the Rows” column in Saturday’s Recorder and shared her advice (below) on using leftover chicken.

How do you grow food in community?

Growing Wine Cap Stropharia Mushrooms on Wood Chips In or Around Your Garden: Sunday, April 28, 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., Greenfield Community Farm, Greenfield. For folks who want to get started with mushroom cultivation. Beginners of any age welcome. Check www.justroots.org/events for details! Register by contacting Annie Burdett at annie@justroots.org. For information and directions to the farm, visit www.justroots.org.

The Fine Art of Growing Great Vegetables: A Weekend for Gardeners, Chefs, and Teachers: Friday, May 3 to Sunday, May 5, Rowe Conference Center, Rowe, MA. Learn to design a kitchen garden to grow delicious, nourishing food for your home or school. Nationally recognized cookbook author and kitchen garden expert Ellen Ecker Ogden teaches how to reach beyond the simple straight rows and boxy shape of a traditional vegetable garden with her simple, six-step strategy. Learn to create paths for better productivity, why a four-square rotation system enhances organic soil, and how to select seeds for optimum flavor. A successful kitchen garden turns work into play. Leave with a plan that combines ornamental edibles with classic design. Bring photos of your own garden, seed catalogs, graph paper, and pencils. Plenty of time for individual attention, vegetable garden at Rowe will serve as testing ground to transfer designs from paper to reality. For information and registration, visit http://www.rowecenter.org/events.php?event=180.

Just Roots’ Spring Farm Event: Sunday, May 5, Greenfield Community Farm, Greenfield. Work Parties and Workshops starting at Noon. Potluck Dinner at 5 p.m. Performances starting at 6 p.m. Feel free to come and participate in any part of the day. Check www.justroots.org/events for details as the event draws near. This Week We’re Eating. . .

What I Do with Leftover Chicken

By Pat Leuchtman, “Between the Rows” gardening column and End of the Road Farm, Heath

Cut up cooked leftover chicken, enough for how many need to be served. Cook up sufficient spaghetti for however many will be served. Boil or steam thinly sliced carrots and drain. Dice a small onion and saute in olive oil until soft. Add leftover chicken to heat through. Put spaghetti in large enough bowl and add chicken and onion. Add drained carrots. Then add as much bottled peanut sauce from the store as necessary — the amounts do not matter — to suit taste, amount of leftovers, or number of people being served. Very little chicken is needed.

ALSO, a similar recipe with small pieces of leftover cooked chicken is Biryani, made with bottled biryani sauce (mild) that I buy at Green Fields Market. I mostly follow the recipe on the jar, but used cooked rice, cooked chicken, and cooked carrots. Quick and easy. The Biryani is good reheated the next day. Salads or other veggies to round out the meal as you wish.